Thursday, February 19, 2015

Anti-Semitism at UCLA

Rachel Beyda's intelligence, her drive and her leadership made her a perfect candidate for justice to the Judicial Board of the
Undergraduate Students Association Council at UCLA. She had been unanimously approved by the Appointments Review Committee earlier Who would ever guess that her Judaism might stand in the way? Who would ever guess that in 2015 this would still be an issue?

At the Feb. 10 hearing, several members did not want to confirm
Rachel Beyda to the association’s judicial board, the committee that
determines if the student government’s actions comply with its bylaws.
Essentially council members argued Beyda’s Jewish heritage is not
compatible with the interests of the UCLA student government...

Student government member Fabienne Roth commenced the question period by asking
Beyda: “Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the
Jewish community, given that recently…(inaudible)…has been surrounding
cases of conflict of interest, how do you see yourself being able to
maintain an unbiased view in…(inaudible)…?”

At this point the Undergraduate Students Association president,
Jewish student Avinoam Baral, interjected that “questioning a
candidate’s ability to remain unbiased simply on the basis of her being a
member of a particular community is an inappropriate question that we
would not feel comfortable asking student members of other communities.”

Rachel Frenklar, Rachel's " roommate, sorority sister and best friend" described the event in the Daily Bruin

All council members swiftly agreed Rachel was amply qualified for the
position, but half of the council had strong reservations stemming from
Rachel’s Jewish identity. “My issue is, I’m going to be upfront about
it, I think she’s pretty great. She’s smart, she like knows her stuff,
she’s like probably going to be a really great lawyer. But I’m like not
going to pretend this isn’t about conflict of interest. … It’s not her
fault … but she’s part of a community that’s very invested in USAC. …
Even if she’s the right person for the job,” claimed Roth.
Sadeghi-Movahed added, “For some reason, I’m not 100 percent
comfortable. I don’t know why. I’ll go through her application again.
I’ve been going through it constantly, but I definitely can see that
she’s qualified for sure.” Throughout this discussion, Rachel anxiously
paced outside, where, she later informed me, she could hear “conflict of
interest” being yelled and concluded that it could only be about her
being Jewish. Undoubtedly, the Israeli-Palestinan conflict is one of the
most contentious issues on our campus. However, Israel was not
mentioned during the discussion of Rachel’s appointment, only her
affiliation with Jewish organizations, making the extensive deliberation
a definitive act of discrimination.

The council eventually unanimously approved Rachel Beyda's appointment.

To Rachel Frenklar , that is not adequate. She writes:

I ask the four council members who initially
questioned Rachel’s appointment on the basis of her Judaism to issue
both public and personal apologies to the UCLA Jewish community and
Rachel. Until they all admit wrongdoing and ask for forgiveness, it is
difficult to trust their morality as decision-makers. Furthermore, I
expect administrative condemnation of their words and actions as exactly
what they were: undeniable anti-Semitism. I expect more of elected
leaders and hope no one else will face being denied a deserved
opportunity on the basis of identity. A recording of the meeting can be
seen on the USAC Live! Youtube channel, and I encourage all students to
watch some of it and become aware of who your representatives are. In a
few months, we will hold elections for new USAC representatives. In
light of this incident, I hope students take the time to learn about the
issues and vote for representatives they believe will serve the student
body with integrity.

The four council members in question have apologized in the Daily Bruin. Hopefully, this latest incident will wake the entire UC system up to the problem of anti-semitism on their campuses and effective action will be taken to educated the students and yes-faculty to the problem. Janet Napolitano and the respective chancellors need to have their feet held to the fire.